Colorado Gun Ban Stopped by Recall Aftershocks

After the immense amount of Bloomberg money, old media airtime and Obama administration political capital was spent on enacting restrictive gun legislation in Colorado last year, the electorate rebelled. Grassroots campaigns led by people who had never been involved in politics beat the establishment. Two legislators were recalled. A third, thought to be in a safe Democratic district, resigned under pressure in order to save the Democrat majority in the State Senate. The political establishment was shaken and aftershocks continue to reverberate . . .

As part of the establishment push to disarm the population, an organization was formed to place a referendum on the ballot to ban firearms on college campuses. The Colorado Supreme Court had ruled that concealed carry was OK in the halls of higher learning in 2012. Spearheaded by Ken Tolz, a long-time proponent of citizen disarmament, Safe Campus Colorado had six months to gather 86,000 signatures for its initiative. I have not found where the funding for the signature drive came from.

The gun control group says it has gathered sufficient signatures to place the gun ban on the ballot. But they also say that they won’t do so. From Colorado Pubic Radio, Tolz is quoted:

“By having this on the ballot, it brings back to prominence some of the feelings that existed last year and we don’t want to get caught up in that environment,” he says.

David Kopel, who is representing 55 sheriffs in a lawsuit against the new gun laws, puts it more bluntly:

“It’s eminently sensible and prudent for the Democratic establishment in Colorado in 2014 to say we don’t want a gun ballot issue out there,” Kopel says. “Whatever happens with that ballot issue, it’s going bring more pro-gun voters to the polls and then once they are at the polls to vote on the gun issue, they will probably vote also in the candidate races for the more pro-gun candidates.”

How much money was spent on an initiative that will now be flushed down the memory hole? The recent Marijuana initiative, which was likely considerably more popular, cost $211,000 to get on the ballot. If the same dynamics applied, the campus ban effort surely cost as much. A nice chunk of change for a disarmed population group, but not a huge amount for someone like, say, Michael Bloomberg.

That’s assuming that the group’s leaders are telling the truth. A truly Machiavellian political activist would merely claim that they had sufficient signatures, but were sacrificing their effort for the greater good of the party, even if they’d fallen short. What better way to gain credit with the Democrat political establishment at little or no cost? As the signatures will not be turned in, there is no way to be sure.

Still, the failure of this initiative to make it on the ballot is another one of the aftershocks is clearly the result of last year’s grass-roots revolution that held gun-grabbing representatives to account for their votes. I expect more to come in November. I do not think that the people’s memories are as short as Governor Hickenlooper seems to believe.

I wish Bloomberg would get a fricking life. It seems all he wants to do is stick his nose into everyone else’s business.

Back to the OP, this is good news on the whole. I am a bit apprehensive about the general election however, as the Rs probably picked the second weakest candidate out of a field of four to go after Hickenlooper.

Ol’ Bob didn’t do that well against Ritter, but I think most Republicans were swimming against the current in that election. He wasn’t my pick of the litter either, but I’ll still vote for him over Hick any day of the week.

More like, that goes without doing. Gunowners, and not just the Fuds, are notorious for sitting on their asses or, worse, cutting off their nose to spite their face.

They had a nice little spasm of indignation with the recalls, which caused them, briefly, to jerk upward in simulation of having a backbone; but don’t expect an encore, let alone tour de force, this year in the general elections. All is again quiet in the kingdom and the sleepy little serfs will resume their slumber, whilst the evil Overlord’s minions do his disarmament bidding.

Expect Dems to keep control of everything and, armed with their latest electoral victory, launch a new and successful assault on liberty; imposing a fresh Hell upon the Columbine State.

Regressives shouldn’t count their November chickens until they hatch. Particularly if you are paying attention to the same Faux News/Rove polls that said that Romney was going to win the last Presidential election,

@ John: Why are you left-wing Pro-regressives so obsessed with the phrase regarding chickens and roosts? It’s like you all want to be Reverend Wright, the pastor in where Obama sat in the pews for twenty years, got married by him but was shocked at his anti-American views.

The progs are already scared because there will likely be several anti-fracking initiatives on the ballot. It’s a major jobs issue, and I suspect that the folks that would turn out to vote against these initiatives are a fairly 2A friendly lot.

“Don’t wanna get caught with an errant 30round mag” — That’s what the lawsuit is all about: it’s unenforceable, because since existing mags were grandfathered, there’s no way to tell whatsoever which ones are legal and which ones are not. Personally, I have several dozen so-called “illegal” magazines (many purchased solely because of this asshattery) that are indeed 100% legal.

Good. I hope they lose all the money they put into this and then lose every single race they think it would have helped. I’m not fond of the Republican party (far from it), but the Democratic party has made itself a lifelong enemy. My vote was theirs to lose right up until Sandy Hook happened.

Both parties suck when it comes to respecting individual rights and constitutional liberties, but there’s only one right now that wants to reach into my home, take away cherished possessions that I’ve earned and hope to pass on to my children, and enact laws that actively interfere with my natural human right to defend myself and my family.

When the Democratic party removes gun control from its platform, then I’ll consider them again…for a few seconds. And then I’ll continue not voting for them until not a single politician remains who campaigned under the old regime.

Inflicting as much electoral pain on the Democratic party as possible is my short-term goal. Long-term, I’m hoping someday I’ll be able to vote for a nationally viable candidate fielded by a constitutional/libertarian party (dreaming, but you never know…).

The government got a lot of tobacco money in a settlement brought about because cigarettes are dangerous to your long-term health.

The government turned around and gave SOME of that money to Planned Parenthood, who has used it to absolutely kill what may possibly turn out to be hundreds of thousands of people (that’s what they are, or else you ain’t) every year.

Neo-Comm’s (new Communists [same as the old communists]) use the term “fundamentalist” as a straw-man, although they don’t know what the word means, or the level of conservatism required by all participants in order to have a “Society” – TERMS, J.M. Thomas R., 2012.

No it doesn’t. neither do a lot of other issues. But THIS is a forum about guns, not one about abortion. However one can COUNT on some oblivious individutal to drag it into the conversation anyway. It’s not enough that there plenty of “Right to Life” fora out there; you have to go *elsewhere* and try to change the subject. That’s just plain rude.

Neither Human Nature nor Physics have changed since invented. Human nature has decided on permanent conflict, at times evidenced in actual-conflict, which at times includes many others, and arms. [Sun Tzu/Clausewitz, et. al.] TERMS, J.M. Thomas R., 2012. Human Nature has already shown that request for peace (or lack of conflict) should be considered dangerous.

“If when Political objects are unimportant, motives weak, the excitement of forces small, a
cautious commander tries in all kinds of ways, without great crises and bloody solutions, to
twist himself skillfully into peace through the characteristic weakness of his enemy in the
field and in the cabinet, we have no right to find fault with him, if the premise on which he
acts are well founded and justified by success; still we must require him to remember that
he only travels on forbidden tracks, where the God of War may surprise him; that he ought
always to keep his eye on the enemy, in order that he may not have to defend himself with
a dress rapier if the enemy takes u p a sharp sword”. (Clausewitz, “On War” pg. 137)

I could spit a bunch of quotes at you too, instead of asking questions. I prefer, however, to simply ask. If you don’t have the stones or the wherewithal to stand by your convictions then by all means, continue dodging.

@Joe R: So I’ll refine my question, are the dead in our wars on middle eastern peoples less important than our own unborn? Do you rail against children dying of AIDs in Africa? You are as capable as solving the problem of dead innocents in either of those places as you are here in regards to abortion. The convenient thing is if you were helping AIDs babies you wouldn’t be trying to dictate what others did with their own bodies, you’d just be helping.

Abortion doesn’t win, and it never will. What might blow your mind is that I’m as rabidly against it as (or moreso than) you are, I just recognize that it’s not an issue that can (or should) be successfully brought to the political table.

This is a forum about guns, but this post is about gun-rights, you can argue a singular point, or you can say don’t just argue that point if your going to keep some of the rest of the stuff that brought you to-it. Move further back from the edge is all I’m sayin.

You argue the point from the end. Move it back up the timeline. Have some personal responsibility, have some care, if you don’t care what the result of intercourse is (and the designed result (the creation of new-people) is unmatched by any social or scientific process), then maybe I cannot argue for your rights, much less your gun rights. You cannot say that you value my life in our shared existence but not the life of another that was brought about (innocently) by your invitation.

Regarding war, I am for-it, I am ate-up, I can’t wait for the next one. If everyone embraced it and promised it, we’d have less of it. It’s the peaceniks that bind you wrist to ankle it whatever way you choose to bend.

Regarding AIDS babies, (and for all other outlay of support) I believe: “Help should be help. Example (hypothetically): if you fall down a well, you will need help. Seeing your impending ruin, I will consider my own resources, well-being, and probability of encountering similar ruin in deciding what to do. I will throw you a rope (help), provided my certainty that you won’t pull me in with you, and that you won’t push me in when I get you out.
If you were stuck in a well and kept asking for more rope, I would eventually have to
hand you down my end.
If you were stuck in a well and asked the Author to hand you down things that would
help to make the well more livable, the Author would use you as a living display of stupidity, a
warning to posterity, evidence of a cause of ruin [1].
If, after extrication, you repeatedly fell in a well despite the warning of experience the
Author would be forced to avoid the danger of you entirely.” TERMS, J.M. Thomas R., 2012, pg. 68.

You’re obviously confused, there is no beginning or end to rights. You can’t argue for my rights because they aren’t up for discussion. That’s where our disconnect is.

I’m not suggesting that abortion isn’t wrong, I’m simply stating that it can’t be up for debate. Every unborn child should be permitted to live, struggle, and thrive the same as you and me. That said, you can’t suggest that demanding a woman to carry and bear a child is morally just. Requiring someone to perform a task under threat of force or imprisonment (and guess what, that’s what laws do) is anything but slavery. Abortion is a problem that laws and moral positions can’t solve. Tying it to your political platform is a loser and you neo-cons (See? I can throw silly labels around too!) fail to see the forest for the trees on silly stuff like this.

And again Joe, rather than provide me with your own ideas, you shamelessly borrow those belonging to someone else. The fact of the matter is this: if life is precious, whose is more precious? Is the unborn American baby more precious than some kid in Afghanistan? Some infant in Africa? Do you crusade for those murdered outside the womb as strongly as you do those within? Are you without sin, so that you may cast stones?

The fact that recall opposition out-spent the recall petitioners by 6:1 — and still lost with a mostly Democrat turn-out — should have told them that they were in the wrong. And as soon as a recall petition was drawn up for a third idiot, she resigned, rather than face an actual recall election.

I noticed you left out MD. That’s correct, as there is not more than a handful of Rs and Ls in this state.

DC is the same, except it really doesn’t have a state government because it’s a Federal District. Instead, it has a ruling junta. Sort of like many countries in the Third World. But I’m repeating myself.

More like, that goes without doing. Gunowners, and not just the Fuds, are notorious for sitting on their asses or, worse, cutting off their nose to spite their face.

They had a nice little spasm of indignation with the recalls, which caused them, briefly, to jerk upward in simulation of having a backbone; but don’t expect an encore, let alone tour de force, this year in the general elections. All is again quiet in the kingdom and the sleepy little serfs will resume their slumber, whilst the evil Overlord’s minions do his disarmament bidding.

Expect Dems to keep control of everything and, armed with their latest electoral victory, launch a new and successful assault on liberty; imposing a fresh Hell upon the Columbine State.

I agree neiowa , I am from Ms. , the incumbent Senator Thad Cochran even asked for Democrats that had not voted in the primary June 3 , to come out and vote for him in the run off , this is as low as he can get , His challenger Chris Mc Daniel is a conservative Tea party member , let alone a State Senator , some of the votes have been nullified due to voter restrictions , but not enough yet to turn things around . What is going to happen with Cochran is if he goes back in , he will probably retire after a time , then our governor Phil Bryant will appoint either former governor Haley Barbour , or Representative Harper to finish Cochran’s term , which will be placing another establishment Republican in office . At this time a large number of folks that voted for Mc Daniel have let it be known that they will either write in vote for Mc Daniel , or step across the line and vote for Democrat Travis Childers a former US representative and is a conservative who has shown over the years to be very pro gun , in the election it could be that Cochran might lose his seat if all of this happens , it would be the proverbial ” shooting himself in the foot ” . Be prepared and ready . Keep your powder dry .

Drill deeper. Two political parties run this country cloaked, in the guise of de-mockary. GOP soliciting democrats to win an election, elected democrat stepping down at the request of the DNC to hold congressional power.

At least teabags have it sorted…correctly. In order to get rid of the democrats, you need to get rid of the republicans. Only then will you get the yoke of taxes off the people.

Their petitions would be due on 7/11/14 and I would be amazed if they got 86105 valid signatures (~600 per day) between 2/11/14 and now. Having worked the Morse and Hudak recalls and another ballot initiative there is a huge rejection rate especially with paid circulators who don’t check every signor against the voter database. Also, collecting signatures on college campuses (which is what I assume they did) is problematic because a lot of students sign with the wrong address and collecting signatures from large groups of people is also risky because they are usually in a hurry or focused on something else and tend to make mistakes. And then there are the other problems – petitions become unstapled (and hence invalid) and the circulator screws up the notary process, which also invalidates the whole petition.

If you follow Colorado politics, then you already know Hickenlooper will beat the pants of Both Ways Beauprez–it won’t even be close. It’ll appear to be tight but Udall is sure to beat Gardener too. The GOPs only real hope is to win in the statehouse. That would at least give a chance of repealing some of the anti-gun laws, though whether it will be a veto-proof majority is doubtful.

THE GOV. WANT GUN CONTROL!!!!!!! JAJAJ THIS HAPPEN FOR LONG,LONG TIME AND NO BODY DO MAKE NOTHING. SO WHU ARE THE KILLERS? GUN OR PEOPLE?????.

In 2011, approximately 1.06 million abortions took place in the U.S., down from an estimated 1.21 million abortions in 2008, 1.29 million in 2002, 1.31 million in 2000 and 1.36 million in 1996. From 1973 through 2011, nearly 53 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S. (AGI).
Based on available state-level data, an estimated 1.04 million abortions took place in 2012—down from an estimated 1.16 million abortions in 2009 and 1.13 million abortions in 2010.
In 2011, the highest number of reported abortions occurred in California (181,730), New York (138,370) and Florida (84,990); the fewest occurred in Wyoming (120), South Dakota (600) and North Dakota (1,250) (AGI).
The 2011 abortion rates by state ranged from a low of 3.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in Mississippi (Wyoming had too few abortions for reliable tabulation) to a high of 28.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in New York (AGI).

SOME PEOPLE DON’T LIKE GUN AND PRETEND YOU DO THE SAME. SOME PEOPLE ARE CRAZY AND THINK YOU ARE TOO. SOME PEOPLE THINK HOW TO TAKE AWAY LIFE AND THINK EVERYONE THINK THE SAME WAY, AND DON’T CARE ABOUT HUMAN LIVE. SOME PEOPLE DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD AND THINK WE ARE NO BELIEVER’S TOO. LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING. YOU KNOW WHAT IS THE PROBLEM??? HUMAN STOP PRAYER,PEOPLE STOP BELIEVING IN GOD, THE GOV AND THE PEOPLE TOOK AWAY PRAYERS FROM SCHOOLS BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE DON’T BELIEVE THIS IS THE PROBLEM.THIS DIDN’T USE TO HAPPEN BEFORE JUST THINK ABOUT THIS. YOU SAW THIS HAPPENING IN THE 80’S. OR 70’S? NO WAY BECAUSE DURING THAT TIME YOU COULD DISCIPLINE YOUR CHILDREN TODAY YOU CAN’T TOUCH YOUR CHILDREN BECAUSE YOU GO TO JAIL AND PARENTS DON’T SPEND TIME WITH THEIR CHILDREN THE TV. DOES AND ALSO, PARENTS STOP TEACHING RESPECT AND VALUES AND THE RESPECT FOR OTHERS AND HUMANITY.